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Hammerburst II
:This article refers to the Hammerburst of Gears of War 2, and Gears of War 3. For the Hammerburst in Gears of War, lookup Hammerburst Assault Rifle. The Hammerburst II was the Locust standard-issue high-powered battle rifle. It is often referred to as the Locust counterpart to the COG Lancer Assault Rifle, the Hammerburst II possessed an automatic and a semi-automatic fire mode. Overview The Hammerburst II is a result of a number of improvements made on the Hammerburst Assault Rifle, such as the addition of an extensive recoil control system, a longer barrel with a larger bore for higher caliber rounds, a completely reworked action for receiving and ejecting cartridges, and a rudimentary iron sight on top of the receiver. The Locust used the Hammerburst II extensively. Although lower-ranked soldiers such as Drones often equipped themselves with the Hammerburst, it was known that some higher-ranking Locust such as the Theron Guards and Palace Guards used it as well. During the Lambent Pandemic, it was often carried by Lambent Drones and Drudges. It also fell into the hands of the Stranded and even COG Gears as parts for the complicated Lancer were becoming scarce. Every pull of the trigger fires multiple rounds, although the rounds come out so fast that each burst acts as if it is a single round in game-play, making the weapon technically burst-fire, but functionally semiautomatic. In Gears of War 2 the tick marks in the ammunition counter go down by two for every pull of the trigger, and in the Gears 3 beta the true, burst-firing nature of the weapon is accentuated further due to multiple spent shell casings falling out for every trigger pull. Strangely this feature is missing the retail release of Gears 3, once more drawing attention to the ambiguity of whether the weapon is burst fire or semiautomatic. Behind the Scenes Gold-Plated Hammerburst On the November 6, 2008 midnight release of Gears of War 2, Gamestop, Game Crazy, and other retailers hosting the midnight launch participated in an special promotion event called "Midnight Mayhem". People who attended the "Midnight Mayhem" event received a Xbox LIVE Marketplace code to unlock a Golden Hammerburst. The code was only available to people who attended the Gears of War 2 midnight launch. The codes are similar to Xbox Live trial codes, and are unique in that once it is used, the code cannot be used again to prevent sharing. The Golden Hammerburst, along with the Golden Lancer in Gears of War 3 can be obtained by playing the game in the first week of its release, or it can be unlocked through the Veteran Gear achievement (which also unlocks all the Golden Weapons). Golden Hammerburst Code Bugs After the November 6, 2008 midnight launch for Gears of War 2, there were reports of players who were not able to successfully register the code and download the Golden Hammerburst. The bug has been addressed; to fix the problem: # Log on and go to the Xbox 360 dashboard # Go to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace # Go to the Account Management menu and select Download History # If the code is valid, re-download the Golden Hammerburst downloadable content Gears of War 3 In the Gears of War 3 Beta you could unlock the Urban, Flaming and Chrome Hammerburst weapon skins. The Chrome Hammerburst was available when you first loaded up the beta, if you had the Gears of War 2 "Rookie Gear" Achievement it was already available. The Urban Hammerburst was unlocked by playing 15 matches in Team Deathmatch and the Flaming Hammerburst was unlocked by playing in the first week of the beta. Players with the Veteran Gear achievement from Gears of War 2 will also unlock the golden Hammerburst. If you play Gears of War 3 the week it comes out, the golden Hammerburst and lancer will be unlocked.http://www.gamersleak.com/2011/08/veteran-gear-unlocks-for-gears-of-war-3/ There is also an Infected Omen pack only unlocked by buying the Epic Edition of Gears of War 3, the Gears of War 3 Console, or the Gears of War 3 Controller. In Gears of War 3, the Hammerburst's effectiveness at long range outstrips both other starting weapons due to a high stopping power, much lower recoil and a unique 'aim down sights' option which switches the view to first-person when the right analog stick is pressed while aiming. With a quick trigger finger, the Hammerburst can down an enemy at long range within 2 seconds. Somewhat off-setting these improvements however is a smaller magazine size and a somewhat deceptive active reload. Being unable to finish off a downed enemy at long range due to these flaws can often lead to the kill being stolen by another player, or even the downed enemy getting back up. For this reason, some players favour the Lancer at long range due to the massive clip size, and the Retro Lancer is a much more effective close range weapon than both alternatives. Nevertheless, in practical terms, the Hammerburst is better than both Lancer versions in medium and long range encounters for the purpose of downing enemies. Also, since the beta ended, the Hammerburst has received some modifications. The weapon no longer receives a multiplier for headshots. The weapon takes 8 shots to down un-actived, and 7 with a perfect reload. The weapon still retains it's unprecedented accuracy, and is much more consistent at all ranges than any of the other weapons. If playing Horde 2.0 or Arcade with the Super Reload Mutator on, a single shot to the head will be a headshot on Insane to enemies with exposed heads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzBPcavSSsI&feature=feedf Cancelled changes In the early promotional pictures for Gears of War 3, and the Ashes to Ashes trailer, the Hammerburst IIs shown with Locust soldiers are slightly different, the traditional rear iron-sight had been replaced with a metal encased glass eye-piece, with metal panels either side and tube running down from the left of it. The front sights were also changed, in Gears 3 they have forked forward sights, but on the early models they were metal rings with another glass panel in the middle. These didn't end up in the actual game, the rear sight from Gears 2 was made larger, and the front sight was changed into a forked on as said above. Trivia *In reality, the iron sights added in Gears of War 3 would not work very well in real life, as they are woefully imprecise and only assist in lining up a target, there are no windage, elevation or depression settings. It is likely the weapon has rudimentary sights because of the Locust tendency to get up-close-and-personal with its enemy, and on average would only be aiming at a distance of 10-15-yards. *Another real-world issue with this weapon would be the lack of a stock. As it is, in reality, it probably wouldn't cycle. High-powered weapons like this need a stock so the user can apply pressure to the weapon allowing it to cycle correctly. As it seems to operate under an Inertia system, and not gas, this problem is even more likely to occur. *Despite it's designation as a rifle, it could be regarded as a high-powered 'Slug-thrower', similar to an automatic shotgun, given it's power, caliber and rate of fire. *In Gears of War: Judgement, the Hammerburst II has been slightly down-graded. It is now only a Semi-automatic, and no-longer grants Headshots. The 'down the barrel' aiming has also been disabled, and the zoom operates like it did in Gears 2. References Hammerburst Assault Rifle Category:Gears of War 2 weapons Category:Locust Horde Category:Gears of War 3